That's what I did too, but the synopsis actually starts with YAML, not with Perl structures.

grinder and your technique is great for those who are good at thinking in, and writing, Perl data structures. I must shamefully confess that, despite long experience programming Perl, I have trouble distinguishing braces from brackets from curlies, and remembering which does what. So I thought to myself: "Hey, YAML, human-readable! Maybe it can save me from wearing out my AltGr key! (on French keyboard)". But YAML turned out not to be as DWIM as I expected, which isn't surprising. Hence the need for lots of examples for lazy newbies like me.

Maybe as penance (and when I have time, this was all supposed to be a timesaver...) I'll write up a translation of perldsc into YAML.